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Guests are not able to post messages or even read certain areas of the forums. Now, that's boring, don't you think? Registration, on the other hand, is simple, completely free of charge, and does not require you to give out any personal information at all. As soon as you register, you can take part in some of the happy fun things at the forums such as posting messages, voting in polls, sending private messages to people and being told that this is where we drink tea and eat cod.

Of course I'm not forcing you to do anything if you don't want to, but seriously, what have you got to lose? Five seconds of your life?

The arena, at first glance, looks like any old grassy plain. However, from the second round on, each Trainer may aesthetically change the arena in whatever way they wish. One round it can be the brim of a hat, the next a casino, and the following a corn flake, but they are all mechanically the same arena. Anything that an attack may need (water, rocks, etc.) will materialize from seemingly nowhere and go back whence it came once the attack is executed.

There is a pattern for the arena-swapping: Trainer who accepts the challenge, then yours truly, then the challenge-accepter, etc.

Agnes, I think we can afford to go easy on our opponent. So let's ignore the Sunny Day and instead focus on setting up an Aqua Ring that will hopefully last us the whole battle. Following that, we can actually use our opponent's ability against us...Use Defog and reap that sweet, sweet Attack boost. And finally, use it to beef up your Rock Tomb attack, so we might be able to get ourselves ahead of our opponent speed-wise.

Aqua Ring ~ Defog ~ Rock Tomb

btw Meursault, how do you ref speed changes? How many more speed drops are necessary before Agnes is faster than Francine?

If I'm reffing your ASB battle, you can find my reffing scale in this document. Mostly it involves details on stat modifications and status conditions, as well as my interpretation of the damage formula, other clarifications regarding the specifics of certain attacks.

The holoplain is basically exactly what the name would imply: a plain... but holographic. Digital blades of grass wave in a gentle digital breeze, and procedurally-generated clouds drift above, here and there glitching into chunky, pixellated messes.

But things won't be staying as boring as all that. Two trainers appear on the plain in twin bursts of light, fuzz for a second with distortion, then finally settle in, looking as real and concrete as anything else on the holoplain. A moment later they're joined by two pokémon, released in the same dazzling flashes of digital light as the trainers were.

Agnes' avatar stands with wings slightly extended, examining the arena, and her opponent, with a bland expression on her face. Nothing particularly interesting here. Francine, on the other hand, hops excitedly in place, tweeting and chirruping and making all kinds of noise as she expresses her excitement at getting the chance to fight.

Francine moves first, eager to begin. The natu's eyes flash orange as she gathers a small ball of fire in her mouth, then tips her whole body back, releasing the tiny sun into the air. It drifts up and away, until the holoplain's simulation system obliges and turns up the lights--turns up the lights a lot. The arena swelters under the suddenly-magnified sun.

Agnes still looks unimpressed. The prinplup slashes a paddle sideways, a streamer of water trailing it. The water somehow hangs suspended in thin air, twisting and expanding until it forms a ring that wraps completely around Agnes, floating at about waist height and refreshing her with a constant spray of droplets.

With her setup done, Francine's ready to go on the offensive. She jumps high into the air, a kick from her small wings giving her a little extra height, then comes lancing down at Agnes, beak-down and spinning. It wouldn't be a tremendously difficult attack to dodge, but the prinplup wants to stay inside her aqua ring. Francine hits the flipper Agnes brings up to block, but the prinplup still winces as the drill peck digs in. It would have been worse to take that in the stomach, but still...

Francine bounces away, getting some distance so she can line up another drill peck. Agnes frowns and claps her wings together in front of herself, sending a burst of air racing after the natu. It strikes some sort of mystical barrier, however, and to Agnes' shock comes whistling straight back at her. She barely gets her flippers up in time to block it, and even then it's a bracing shock, one that puts her on the back foot for a second.

Only a second, though. Then Agnes shakes it off, drawing herself up taller and glaring across at Francine. Whatever that was, she's unamused. The natu can try to slow her down all she likes, but all she's going to do is make Agnes mad.

And when the natu leaps into the air again and falls on her with another drill peck, Agnes grunts and swats her away with a flipper, with the other directing a rabble of rocks to rise from the holographic earth and cascade over the natu, crushing her to the ground. The prinplup surveys the quietly-cheeping rock tomb with some satisfaction. That's why you don't mess with her.

Terrain Notes
The sun shines bright (6 more actions). There is a small pile of rocks on Francine's side of the field. The arena remains in its default state.

Final Notes
- Re: speed boosts: I add/subtract 10 from the pokémon's base speed for each stage of the speed modifier. So Agnes would speed tie Francine at +2 and outspeed at +3 or higher. (Or, conversely, Francine needs to get to -2/-3.)
- Superbird next

The holoplain will become a slab of ice, floating upon an endless sea.

All right, Agnes, to get that speed advantage we're gonna need to do that a few more times. Do another two Rock Tombs, and finish off by setting up a Rain Dance; that sun isn't really doing us any favors. If for some reason you know you won't be able to hit Francine (e.g. if she uses Fly), push the Rock Tombs back and go with Rain Dance. If Francine tries to hit you with anything that looks to be more powerful than Drill Peck (which would include Giga Drain and Solarbeam), Protect yourself in lieu of whatever else you'd be doing that action –*but don't use Protect twice in a row.

If I'm reffing your ASB battle, you can find my reffing scale in this document. Mostly it involves details on stat modifications and status conditions, as well as my interpretation of the damage formula, other clarifications regarding the specifics of certain attacks.

You can't do much under a pile of rocks, can you? Brace yourself and wait until more rocks fall on you (it hurts, but bear with me), then Teleport. After that, Protect against the second salvo of rocks. Now that you're out, end this with a Haze.

Agnes is distracted from her minor victory by a rippling in the air around her. The whole world blurs a moment, the environment convulsing and for a moment devolving to a low-resolution, pixellated rendition. When it settles down again, the grassy arena the battle began on is nowhere to be seen. Instead, the battle's taking place on a flat hunk of ice, set adrift on an endless sea.

Agnes taps at the ice with one foot. Seems solid enough, if slippery, and Francine's rock tomb is unchanged. Okay, then. That was weird.

Weird or not, the arena's sudden change isn't going to interfere with Agnes' plan. The prinplup raises her flippers, calling up another wave of rocks. There aren't exactly any around to heed her call, but with a series of loud cracking noises, part of the platform crumbles and rises into the air. Agnes directs the hunks of ice to crash down over the existing rock tomb--they work well enough. And indeed, Francine, waiting inside the rock tomb, grinds her teeth together as the weight of the ice drives the rocks encasing her into her side. At least now she can stop hiding. The natu closes her eyes a moment, concentrates, then disappears with a sharp popping noise.

Francine takes shape in front of Agnes, battered and glaring and ready to get on with the fight. Unimpressed, Agnes summons up another swarm of icy fragments, but Francine, equally unimpressed, deflects them with a well-timed energy shield. The natu opens her beak and, to Agnes' surprise and discomfort, begins to emit a dense, dark fog. The haze spreads rapidly across the chunk of ice, until all Agnes can see on all sides is its dark, swirling tendrils. Its clammy touch seems to suck the life right out of her, and the indignation she was feeling at having her own defog blown back at her gradually dissipates in the face of cold discomfort.

It's not exactly the best conditions for dancing, but Agnes gathers herself, resolves not to let Francine ruin her fun, and begins. The prinplup makes a cautious, shuffling dance, trying not to stray too far from one spot for fear of running off the edge of the ice, not moving too fast lest she slip and fall. But waddling on ice is something all prinplup know well, and in the end Agnes manages a passable rain dance. She can't see the clouds gathering overhead, but soon a few raindrops spatter down through the haze, turning everything even colder and wetter than it was before.

Hm. This is maybe a bit of a predicament for us, Agnes. We need some way to get rid of that Substitute before it becomes a problem, and Haze is gonna be a problem because all your powerful moves have low-ish accuracy to start with.

Fortunately, I've done some looking-up, and Magic Bounce will still work even while the Substitute is up. So let's start with Defog again, to get rid of the Haze but also to raise your Attack, and follow it up with a Waterfall to the Substitute's face. With the boost, plus STAB and rain, that should be plenty enough to knock the thing down in one hit. Follow that up with another Waterfall to Francine's face, and make it count – you'll want to get revenge for those Giga Drains she'll be trying to hit you with.

If I'm reffing your ASB battle, you can find my reffing scale in this document. Mostly it involves details on stat modifications and status conditions, as well as my interpretation of the damage formula, other clarifications regarding the specifics of certain attacks.

...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pokémon Showdown VGC

[02:22:35] +Superbird: ok seriously tho can I get some opinions on modern art
[02:22:42] +Superbird: its important
[02:23:18] @amr97: Modern art includes artistic works produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the style and philosophy of the art produced during that era.
[02:23:20] @amr97: The term is usually associated with art in which the traditions of the past have been thrown aside in a spirit of experimentation.
[02:24:26] +Superbird: opinions, amr97, not definitions
[02:24:49] @amr97: oh
[02:24:52] @amr97: i don't get it
[02:24:56] @amr97: is my opinion
[02:25:04] +Superbird: oh ffs
[02:25:28] +Superbird: maybe i should give up and try a different room
[02:25:32] @amr97: probably tbh
[02:26:19] @SamVGC: i think this chatroom
[02:26:22] @SamVGC: is an art form
[02:26:26] @Dog-for-Dinner:http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Opinions+on+Modern+Art
[02:26:47] +Superbird: dong-for-dinner that is not a thing to be goggled
[02:26:50] +Superbird: *dog
[02:26:51] +Superbird: *google
[02:27:02] @amr97: dong-for-dinner lmao
[02:27:07] @amr97: that had to be intentional
[02:27:18] +Superbird: 100% wasn't
[02:27:28] +Superbird: i'm so used to typing dingram's name that
[02:27:45] +Superbird: anything starting with the same first letter
[02:28:17] @Dog-for-Dinner: why is it not a thing to be googled
[02:28:23] @Dog-for-Dinner: google is the story of my high school
[02:28:33] +Superbird: you dont google opinions
[02:28:36] +Superbird: you google facts
[02:28:52] @Dog-for-Dinner: seems like a science student is trying to study humanities
[02:28:56] @Dog-for-Dinner: and is having a hard time
[02:29:00] +Superbird: ^